Cheltenham on Divers’ radar
The grey landed the Centenary Novices’ Handicap Chase at the Cheltenham Festival in March and was making his first start since in Sunday’s Colin Parker Memorial Intermediate Chase in Cumbria.
Keith Mercer was hard at work from an early stage in the testing conditions and eventually pulled up three fences from home, but Murphy expects his charge to improve considerably.
“He’s grand this morning. He wouldn’t go on that ground at all as it was very dead and he just can’t handle it when it’s like that,” said Murphy.
“He’s out in the field this morning and he’s fine and he’ll still go for the Paddy Power, subject to the ground. He obviously won’t run if it’s dead ground like it was on Sunday. He’ll come on a lot for the run.’’
